


Tall Brunette for Sameen

by imonly_joking



Series: In a Thousand Worlds, It's You Beside Me [2]
Category: Person Of Interest - Fandom
Genre: College AU, F/F, M/M, background John/Harold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 11:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3976489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imonly_joking/pseuds/imonly_joking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>based off this tumblr post by korrakun "my favorite college experience is when i had a 7am class and the kid next to me literally poured a monster energy drink into his coffee said "i'm going to die" and drank the whole thing"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tall Brunette for Sameen

Sameen Shaw was a bad-ass med student.

She could bench press twice her weight, recite the most bones in a human body, shoot with incredible accuracy, and out-eat a grown man (she's was in a hot-dog eating contest in her freshman year because she lost a bet. The way she sees it, she won the bet; she got free hot-dogs.) Shaw doesn't take crap from anybody and has a glare that could make Jack Bauer run home to mommy.

Shaw is also a huge nerd. Since she can remember, she's been obsessed with history. For her sixth birthday, her parents got her huge books about Rome and Greece and other ancient civilizations. She spent hours on hours reading them and looking up words that she didn't understand. It took her almost a year to read them, but she finished every one of them and loved every second. She always had an extremely high grade in social studies and took AP History every time she could. When she was fourteen, her aunt got her a DVD set of some drama show that was based on real historical events, and Shaw couldn't bear to make herself watch past the first episode because of all the inaccuracies.

So when she got the chance to take _Ancient Civilizations I: Egypt and the Middle East_ she took it.

Every Saturday morning, she dragged herself out of bed at 6AM. Yeah, Shaw normally got up at the crack of dawn, but Saturday was usually her sacred day, most holy day of all days; it was the one day she allowed herself to sleep in a couple hours and be lazy. She usually try to schedule one, short class on Saturdays and she would just lounge around all day and after class, she might go for a walk in the city and do her shopping. Shaw was a firm believer in working hard, but med school was difficult and Shaw knew a couple dozen kids who had already changed majors because the load was too hard so Shaw made sure to give herself some down time.

This semester, however, was the first time she'd been able to take this class. Her work load this semester wasn't that bad so she seized the opportunity to take it this semester. It wasn't a very popular class; her class had close to a hundred people in it, but only ten showed up to every class so it only had three morning class a week and the other two clashed with two of Shaw's other class so Saturday was her only option. Begrudgingly, Shaw dragged herself out of bed at 6AM, went for a run, came back to take a shower, eat some breakfast, and got ready. She lived off-campus and campus was only a ten minute-walk away and she managed to get to class at about 7:55.

On this morning, however, Shaw's huge alarm clock that she'd found at a thrift store decided to mess up after three years of use. She was surprised it lasted that long; it was made in the late nineties and she bought it for five dollars. It woke her up at about five, but she couldn't be sure of the exact time because she'd slammed her fist down on it and smashed part of it so she couldn't make out the last two numbers.

She'd honestly expected more from a five-dollar, thrift store clock.

Shaw didn't particularly enjoy waking up early, but she didn't find it painful and soul-wrenching like most college students did. So she accepted her fate and didn't bother trying to go back to sleep especially now that her alarm clock was broken. She went about her morning routine, allowing herself to take extra time in the shower, and after she'd put on a plain black t-shirt, dark denim pants, and her black combat boots and tugged her hair into a pony-tail, it was only 7:30. There wasn't anything to do at her apartment for that amount of time so she grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

She took her time walking and still managed to get there fifteen minutes early. Great, she thought as she stood in the door and stared at the room. All of the other nine kids were already in there, sitting in different clusters. In the back, sat four guys that stuck together, she recognized the kid Caleb from her bio class a couple semesters ago and she'd gone to high school with Daniel Casey but she didn't know the other two, some Japanese guy and some guy with dark hair and a moody look. To her right was John, a guy she'd been partnered with in chemistry who was pretty cool and failing at hiding his hangover and nodded when he caught her eye. On one side of him was some girl, Jasmine or Janice or something with a J and on the other was his best friend, a scrawny nerd who was madly typing away at his computer. No one could convince her that he and John didn't have something going on. (She'd seen the looks they gave each other and the way that John would lean in close to murmur in his ear and the nerd would smile and the way that John constantly had his arm slung over the back of the other kid's seat, fingers brushing his shoulder. Her gaydar went crazy every time she saw them together.) In the back corner was a creepy British guy that was at least in his thirties and already starting to grey. A slow smile spread on his face when he saw her and she had to stop herself from shuddering. Shaw didn't scare easy, but that guy was the sole reason she kept a knife in her boot.

The ninth kid was a girl that Shaw had seen before, but never paid much attention to. That said girl was sitting right next to Shaw's normal seat holding a cup of coffee and a phone like it was something she did every day. But she didn't do it every day because Shaw had sat in that corner of the class, totally alone and totally disconnected from everyone else since the class had started and now this girl was sitting next to her? Who the hell did she think she was?

Shaw narrowed her eyes, glaring a light brown hair that was cascading down in beautifully, annoying waves, and tightened her grip on her bag. She would not be intimidated by some girl would was literally the size of a stick. She was not going to be pushed out of her home by this interloper and forced to break her habit of sitting in the same place. Okay, maybe Shaw was being overly dramatic, but she'd already broken enough of her habits that morning and had sliced her on broken plastic from her clock.

So she marched down the steps and forcefully plopped down in her seat, trying to make a point. She noted with annoyance that the girl didn't flinch; she didn't even look up. She was just staring interestedly at her phone.

Shaw huffed in indifference as she let her eyes trail over the other girl.

Her hair framed her face and she was wearing those annoying hipster glasses, but they didn't look half-bad on her. She was kind of cute, in an effortless way and not in the kind of way that looked like she'd been up since the crack of dawn putting on make-up. (Shaw tried to shove that thought and ones like it to the back of her head). Shaw definitely didn't notice how sluggishly her tired eyes blinked and there were faint bags under them. Despite her obvious exhaustion, her eyes scanned her phone screen rapidly. She must've read something that was funny because her mouth twitched in a small smile and her nose crinkled up in a way that weirdly reminded Shaw of a puppy. She was tall, like ridiculously tall. Her legs seemed to go on forever and the tight, tight skinny jeans she was wearing didn’t help. They definitely weren't helping Shaw focus either. The girl had to half a foot taller than Shaw and if that wasn't enough, she was wearing boots that had heels that had to be two or three inches tall.

What was she trying to do, talk to birds that were in mid-flight or be eye-level with the sun? Who really wanted to be that tall?

She clicked off her phone and Shaw quickly snapped her head forward and busied herself with pulling out her notebook, trying to make it look. It wasn't like she was even paying that much attention to the girl. “

This,” the mystery girl finally spoke, “is probably how I'm going to die.”

Shaw glanced around in confusion. There was no one else around them so she must be talking to Shaw. She looked at the other girl and what she said made sense. The girl had pulled something out of her bag. In one hand, she was holding her foam cup, a coffee-shop logo printed on the side, and in the other hand, she was holding a can of the white Monster that had obviously come from the bag. She was also pulling off the lid and pouring said Monster into said coffee.

There was no way that could be healthy. Or tasty. Shaw felt her own stomach turn at the thought of drinking it.

The girl just smirked at Shaw and put the cup to her lips, taking a big sip. She visibly grimaced, but her eyes still sparkled with amusement and her lips quirked up in a smile. “It's not that bad,” she commented, taking Shaw's silence and blatant stare as an invitation to talk. She held the cup out towards Shaw. “Wanna taste?” She asked, somehow making the question sound seductive.

Shaw just glared harder and shoved the coffee back towards the girl, trying not to smirk when it sloshed and some splashed onto the end of the girl's cardigan. “No thanks,” she declined gruffly, watching as the girl sat the coffee down and pushed her sleeve up like it didn't even concern her “I'd rather not have my heart speed up until it explodes.”

“WedMD says this is perfectly safe as long as I don't do it too often,” she said seriously, but the look in her eye said that she was just saying that to piss Shaw off, but there was no possible way that this girl could know Shaw's major and that she'd been taught since day one that WedMD was a doctor's personal devil.

“Besides, I'm sure you're skilled enough to restart it for me.” She winked as she said it, eyes raking over Shaw's body. “My name's Root.”

“What the hell kind of name is Root?”

“It's not very nice to insult someone's name, Sameen.” The girl, Root, pouted, more playful that wounded.

“And how the hell do you know my name?”

“Some people just pay attention to other people, Sameen. You should try it sometimes. Other people can be so interesting sometimes; they can really surprise you.”

“If you don't tell me, I'll prove how skilled I am by killing you and making it look like an accident.”

“Fine,” Root huffed with mock-annoyance. “I'm a friend of Harold's.”

Shaw just stared at her blankly and raised a questioning eyebrow. Who the hell was Harold?

Root chuckled at the look on Shaw's face. “Wow, you really don't pay attention to other people, huh Sameen?” Shaw tried to ignore the distracting way Root said her name. She'd never heard anyone say her name like that, with such interest. “Harold Finch, John's boyfriend.”

Shaw glanced back at John and Harold quick enough to see Harold whispering to John and John turn his head to catch Harold's lips in a kiss. John broke it off fairly quickly, smirking, and Harold turned back to his computer, smiling and blushing.

Okay, maybe she did need to start paying attention.

“He told me about you and I must say, you are quite an interesting little med student.” Root continued, flirtatiously.

“Is that your idea of a line?” Shaw asked, bluntly, making sure to keep her voice void of all interest. Of all the people Shaw had met, Root was interesting and amusing even though Shaw was starting to question her sanity and lack thereof.

“I think we both know that normal lines wouldn't work on you, from what I’ve heard about you at least. However, whether that's a line or just a casual comment is completely up to you.” Root bit her lip innocently and wiggled her eyebrows, turning her attention to their professor, who Shaw had been completely oblivious to until now.

She stared at Root a moment more, watching as she drunk her coffee that was a heart-attack waiting to happen. Root noticed that Shaw's gaze lingered and just winked playfully.

Maybe she could learn to share her corner. As long as Root didn't try to sit in her seat.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue if WedMD says anything about pouring energy drinks into coffee. I just put it in because my friend is in nursing school and she says all her professors hate it.


End file.
